ROM Hacks that genuinely improve the base game?

[Your_Homie_Gale]

Pokemon Crystal Clear and Yellow 151 for a complete pokemon experience that doesn't change the pokemon stats or movepools making them compatible with other games. Thanks to PKHex I was able to transfer my pokemon to later gens without much issue. There are other pokemon hacks that change a few things, like Red ++, but they're too different from vanilla. Crystal Clear changes Crystal so much from vanilla, but the pokemon themselves are kept the same. Only difference is how to obtain them. Too many improvement hacks add new pokemon, change their stats, or make them more difficult; which aren't bad, in fact they're usually 9/10s, but I just prefer vanilla.

 

[Bakuma1997]

7th Saga: The New Class

Recently started it after reading the Review of the vanilla game, i tried both the Redux and plus ones, but they felt...kindaa meh

Then i tried the patch, i can only say... satisfied

Rather than a bunch of role-less blobs , the game aims to make the playable classes a single class focused moveset based on Final Fantasy 1 (The elf is a black mage, the devil is a thief, the knight is a red mage, ETC), with the black and white mages being nukes or inmortality inducers at the cost of being tissues, while the rest can hit like trucks, but their magic is lacking

Is made with Redux as a base, so if you liked it, you can get all the goods of that one, only flaw is that since headering differences made them incompatible, you can't use the name patch, so i have to guess what item does what with a crummy contraction

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

I've tried quickly Super Mario Kart with a full screen hack, it doesn't strictly improve the game but it's a nice hack.

The only down sides are that you'd forfeit the mini map and back view.

 

[Moreno909]

MegaMan 7 Refit
All FastROM hacks for the SNES
6 button hack for the Megadrive
2x damage for Rockman and Bass

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

All FastROM hacks for the SNES.

FastROM seems good but can BSNES make it work? Or is it only for a specific emulator? I don't feel like I could use the fast rom capabilities.

6 button hack for the Megadrive.

I love the one for Alien Soldiers but do you have other examples in mind please?

 

[Moreno909]

FastROM seems good but can BSNES make it work? Or is it only for a specific emulator? I don't feel like I could use the fast rom capabilities.


I love the one for Alien Soldiers but do you have other examples in mind please?

I use them for the Snes9x emulator. You can alternatively overclock it.
contra hard corps, desert strike, urban strike have 6 button patches available

 

[Segadude113]

Too many Pokemon hacks to name here. A lot of them for gens 1 and 2. Not to mention all the color hacks of Game Boy games that also fix bugs, graphical errors, and slowdown.

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

Every single romhack of the Johto Pokemon games

 

[DrunkGecko]

DBZ Budokai Tenkaichi 4 and Pokemon Red++ come to mind

I’ve a good hack for you, Maya Fey.

Dragon Ball Budokai AF might be my preferred way of playing budokai 3 now. I like the B3 soundtrack, but it can be hard to recommend considering it’s plagiarized. And I’m also not against licensed music so I’ve loved basically all the new tracks in budokai AF. I do believe they add atmosphere and helped me uncover new bands I never would’ve heard about otherwise.

I'm surprised I've never heard of this
I gotta check that out

 

[Yousef Yousef]

DBZ Budokai Tenkaichi 4 and Pokemon Red++ come to mind

I'm surprised I've never heard of this
I gotta check that out

That hack defined my entire dbz gaming life. It’s so good.

 

[Bakuma1997]

Shoutout to Mother 25 Anniversary, without it, i won't be able to finally finish the MOTHER trilogy

Reasonable Random Encounters
Allies joins at your own levels
Money and EXP are doubled
Graphical updates
Maps are streamlined

But the plot beats are still the same

 

[Den MDM Den MDM]

FF6 Brave New World is my favourite Romhack ever. Most people criticized it due to the major change that was limiting every character to using 3 or 4 of all the available espers, but I appreciate that it allows players to exploit the individual strength of the characters. The changes are many, and there are so many new things to discover that it's simply a must-play for any person that finished the base game.

I don't wanna spoil anything, but the final boss fight in that mod is just BEEEEEEEEEEAAAAUTIFUUULLLLL

 

[Antilocal123]

There’s a My Melody Rom-Hack that improves Super Mario World because no way in hell I’d play that shit without it.

 

[Konkaluu]

Pokemon games, like moemon.

 

[rootCompute]

I feel like double-XP hacks for old school JRPGs are a must in this era of gaming abundance, like on Phantasy Star 1, Dragon Quest 1 & 2 GBC for example. I love those games, but also appreciate when I don't have to spend as much of my adult life grinding away on one single game while not really missing out on anything of importance.

Same for JRPG hacks that decrease random encounters if they are particularly excessive. Any type of time-saving or frustration mitigating hack is welcome if it doesn't ruin the spirit of the game

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

I feel like double-XP hacks for old school JRPGs are a must in this era of gaming abundance, like on Phantasy Star 1, Dragon Quest 1 & 2 GBC for example. I love those games, but also appreciate when I don't have to spend as much of my adult life grinding away on one single game while not really missing out on anything of importance.

I agree, this is much more convenient for grinding.

Even if there are speed-up options on emulators it has less risks of doing mistake.

Same for JRPG hacks that decrease random encounters if they are particularly excessive. Any type of time-saving or frustration mitigating hack is welcome if it doesn't ruin the spirit of the game.

Now the question is "what is the spirit of the game"? Some purists would say that decreasing random encounters would go against the dev's intent.